About an hour later, Neji rode the Thunder Roc back to the outskirts of Konoha. After dismissing it, he did not hurry back into the village. Instead, he found a secluded spot nearby and prepared to establish a base there to study how to use Natural Energy.
This experiment was important, but also dangerous. Too many things were unknown!
Too bad he did not know any Earth Release Jutsu. Otherwise, building a small base like this would have taken only a few Earth Release Jutsu and been finished in minutes!
He could not ask anyone for help, much less post a mission in the village. It seemed he could only rely on his own hardworking hands. He would treat it as taijutsu training.
He headed to a nearby town, found a blacksmith, and ordered several oversized tools. The blacksmith was terrified at first, but relaxed once he realized Neji was a ninja. Ordinary people could not use such tools anyway. A sledgehammer weighing more than three hundred jin, an enormous shovel weighing over two hundred jin, baskets capable of holding more than a thousand jin of dirt—none of those were things ordinary people could handle!
With Neji's active help, the tools were finished in just one day. Leaving everyone marveling at his tremendous strength, Neji silently carried all the tools to the location he had chosen for the base.
With suitable tools, construction went quickly. In only three days, Neji built an underground laboratory twenty meters deep and roughly two hundred square meters in size. He also added some camouflage outside to keep villagers from wandering in by mistake.
Neji planned to return to Konoha first to purchase some experimental equipment. For the time being, his main focus would be researching Natural Energy with all his strength and striving to master "Sage Jutsu" as soon as possible. Once he did, his combat power would undergo another breakthrough.
When he returned to his residence in Konoha, he saw Sasuke training as usual.
Neji could not help but sigh. The drive for revenge really was powerful!
Moreover, Neji could sense that Sasuke felt different from before. He was a little stronger than the last time they met, but that was not the important part. What mattered was the faint, chilling aura emanating from him.
Neji tried asking, "Sasuke, did you awaken the Sharingan?"
Sasuke did not answer. Instead, he closed his eyes, then slowly opened them. A pair of crimson eyes appeared before Neji, carrying a faint sense of oppression and illusion. "Those really are a pair of good eyes."
Neji could not help praising them. "But before the Mangekyo, they're still a little inferior to the Byakugan."
Sasuke frowned, catching the key point—"Mangekyo"! He completely ignored the comparison with the Byakugan. After little thought, he asked directly, "What is the Mangekyo? Tell me everything you know."
Neji did not like Sasuke's overly self-centered tone, nor did he intend to indulge him. He provoked him directly. "Oh? You got the Sharingan and now you're getting cocky? Think you're good again?"
Neji crooked a finger at him. "Come on, let's spar."
Sasuke also wanted to test his recent progress, so he did not refuse. He temporarily set aside his questions about the "Mangekyo" and assumed a fighting stance.
Neji did not let his guard down either. Although Sasuke, with more than two hundred Ka of Chakra, posed little threat to him, Sasuke was currently his biggest financial backer. Many experiments required Sasuke's money. He had to give it his all and let Sasuke know that he still had much to learn—and plenty more tuition to pay!
After sorting through those thoughts, Neji assumed a fighting stance as well. Threat or no threat, he had to show the right attitude.
Once he saw Neji was ready, Sasuke immediately activated his Sharingan. After throwing several shuriken, he rapidly closed in and launched a taijutsu attack.
Neji did not slack off either. He knocked away the incoming shuriken and directly used the Gentle Fist Art, clashing with Sasuke head-on. At this stage, Sasuke's taijutsu could only be described as passable. Both his speed and strength still needed improvement. Of course, that was compared to Neji himself. Among peers, even among graduating students, Sasuke would unquestionably count as the top student.
Seeing that taijutsu had failed to achieve anything, Sasuke delivered a side kick, using the momentum to widen the distance between himself and Neji, then formed hand seals at high speed.
A Great Fireball swiftly engulfed Neji.
Neji did not panic. He directly unleashed an amplified Gentle Fist Art—Eight Trigrams—Empty Palm, blasting the Great Fireball apart. The remaining force continued onward, knocking away the shuriken following behind it.
Because he had not activated his Byakugan, Neji lost sight of Sasuke after the Great Fireball blocked his vision for a moment. He silently became vigilant. Don't mess this up. That would be embarrassing!
The next second, the ground trembled slightly, and a hand burst out of the earth, grabbing for Neji.
But to a prepared Neji, that speed was far too slow. He easily dodged the grab and struck with an Empty Palm. When the smoke cleared, he found that it was a Shadow Clone.
Just then, a series of sharp whistles came from behind Neji. Without turning around, he spun his body and activated the Gentle Fist Art—Kaiten, knocking away every ninja tool.
However, as more and more ninja tools were flung aside, Neji realized something was wrong. Metal wires were attached behind every one of them, causing countless wires to wrap around his Kaiten and gradually making it more difficult to use.
At that moment, Sasuke seized the opening created by Kaiten's weakened defense. He rapidly formed hand seals, stirred the Chakra throughout his body, and unleashed his strongest current ninjutsu—Fire Style: Dragon Fire Technique. A surging fire dragon instantly formed and charged toward Neji without hesitation, as if it would break through every obstacle and burn everything in its path.
Looking at the fire dragon rushing toward him, Neji found it a little strange. Wasn't this the move Sasuke had used against Orochimaru during the Chunin Exams? But Neji had no intention of imitating Orochimaru by letting the fire dragon burn him, then mischievously pretending to die just to tease Sasuke!
Neji directly increased his Chakra output and infused it with Lightning Release. The ordinary Gentle Fist Art—Eight Trigrams—Kaiten immediately transformed into the Gentle Fist Art—Eight Trigrams—Lightning Great Rotation!
A spinning sphere of lightning nearly twenty meters in diameter instantly formed, easily shredding the metal wires before colliding with the oncoming fire dragon. The once fierce fire dragon met the nearly S-rank Gentle Fist Art—Eight Trigrams—Lightning Great Rotation and was instantly crushed, vanishing into the air.
Neji withdrew the Lightning Great Rotation, with no intention of letting Sasuke off so easily after he had expended so much Chakra that he could barely stand.
He lowered his body, gathered a massive amount of Lightning Release Chakra in his right hand, and instantly completed its nature and shape transformations, forming a blade-like Lightning Blade. He activated his Byakugan and stared directly at Sasuke, who could not even open his Sharingan anymore.
An immense threat of death rose in Sasuke's heart, making the fear he had not felt for so long tremble within him once more!
Neji plunged the Lightning Blade into the ground and charged toward Sasuke at high speed, leaving behind a long trench carved by the blade.
The distance was short, and the time was brief, but for Sasuke, who had been locked onto, it felt as long and agonizing as an entire century!
When the Lightning Blade pierced the wall beside his left cheek, Sasuke's heart seemed to stop beating. He forgot to breathe. Everything appeared frozen, and he stood there stupidly, not knowing how his heart was supposed to beat or how his nose was supposed to breathe.
Only after a long while, when he was nearly suffocating, did Sasuke come back to his senses and begin gasping violently!
He still could not believe that someone only a year older than him could possess such power!
The gap between them was like heaven and earth. A deep sense of defeat lingered in Sasuke's heart, leaving him unable to recover for a long time.
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